This week I don’t have to look far for inspiration for my #FollowFridays theme: Yesterday, August 19 was World Humanitarian Day.
World Humanitarian Day was established by the General Assembly of the UN in December 2008 and was first observed in August 2009. Humanitarians provide life-saving assistance to millions of people worldwide, placing their own lives at risk to help others in conflict zones and areas of natural hazards. Humanitarians provide support for different world challenges such as hunger, gender-based violence, refugees and displaced people, help for children, as well as clean water and access to sanitation.
It is my honor to present an
incomplete list of those humanitarian individual / organizational Tweeters who serve others, inspiring us all.
@JosetteSheeran - Josette Sheeran is the Executive Director of the
United Nations World Food Program. Likening rising food costs and the subsequent world hunger as a "silent tsunami," Ms. Sheeran has made news for both her sharp insights and her brand of pragmatic idealism. Her "front line reports" of the organization's global aid efforts are both entertaining and poignant: who among us couldn't smile at the image of Christina Aguilera singing "Happy Birthday" to a child in earthquake-ravaged Haiti?
@AvrilBenoit - Avril Benoît is a Canadian broadcaster who, after 20 years in journalism, left the CBC to become the Communications Director for
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders - Canada). I see some parallels in her life to my own: we both turned our back on our decade-long careers to pursue other, more altruistic goals. Ms. Benoit's journalism instincts appear to have remained intact after her career change, as her tweets inform about current humanitarian issues and stories, such as ongoing Haiti relief and violence against aid workers in Afghanistan.
@gogvm - The Twitter home of Yank Barry, founder of
Global Village Champions Foundation, an organization whose ambitious goal is to have no one in the world go hungry. Mr. Barry is another successful executive who saw great suffering in his business travels, and was determined to do something about it. He founded Global Village Champions Foundation as his philanthropic organization to combat world hunger, and serves to this day as its chairman and chief advocate. With the motto of "Doing Well by Doing Good," Mr. Barry's tweets report not only on the happenings within the Global Village organization, but also other humanitarian, environmental and conservation issues and even a little pop culture to add flavor.
@jeffpower - Jeff Power is a Humanitarian Aid Worker with
Global Hope Network International. Some of his past good deeds include building teacher housing in Ethiopia and digging a reservoir in India, as well as aid trips to Darfur, Dubai, Somalia and Kenya. His blog,
Pangeo, is three parts humanitarian journal and one part travelogue, with fascinating, very well-written entries about his work, the challenges each project entails, and, perhaps most touchingly, how hard it is to be away from his family on his long journeys.
@scottharrison - Once a very successful nightclub promoter in New York City, Mr. Harrison left the Big Apple to volunteer with a charity that provided medical care to the world's most poverty-stricken areas. The human misery he witnessed provided the impetus to found
Charity : Water, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. His tweets are not just informative, they serve a purpose: one campaign promoted on Twitter encourages followers to "give up" their birthday, and in lieu of gifts, donations being made to this worthy cause. A true visionary, Mr. Harrison uses the same promotion abilities he used in his "past life" to raise money for Charity:Water with great results. He is truly an inspiration for all fundraising non-profits.
@witnessorg -
WITNESS envisions a just, equitable world in which all individuals and communities are able to defend and uphold their human rights. Using video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations, WITNESS empowers people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change. WITNESS is an exceptionally active Twitter account, adding dozens of tweets a day, and is very responsive to its many fans and followers.
@wrcommission -
Women's Refugee Commission is an advocate for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and displaced women, children and youth. Its tweets are an excellent resource for finding well-written and informative blogs on many different humanitarian issues, from Pakistan floods to continuing Haiti relief efforts.
@DCSMS -
Stop Modern Slavery has the goal of ending slavery through grassroots, community action. This non-profit's tweets offer many different opportunities for followers to not only learn about modern-day slavery, even in our modern society, but also promotes easy ways to help its cause.
@EndMalariaNow End Malaria Now is a global effort to save lives by helping families that are in desperate need to fight malaria, the leading cause of death in Africa. Its tweets are an eclectic mix of malaria prevention tips, links to scientific and scholarly articles about malaria, shout-outs to followers and even a quote or two!
@pwlmcadams - A Senior Education Specialist working for the
NGO Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education, Mr. McAdams acts as a humanitarian watchdog, reporting on human rights issues throughout the world on his many daily tweets. (A thank you to Michelle Sullivan for bringing this worthy Tweeter to our attention!)
Thank you, humanitarians, for all you do. While at Amazon CARES our focus is on companion animals, we recognize that there can be no good home for a pet if in that home people suffer, and that we are all creatures of this earth, put here to help each other. We are very grateful for your efforts, idealism and the hope that you inspire!
Researched by Linda Schwefel
